


The Honest Truth

by Sinna



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bonnie & Clyde, Asexual Character, Asexuality, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 00:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2527538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 1930, Jack Kelly met Morris Delancey. The rest, as they say, is history.<br/>No one ever said that history had to be consistent.<br/>(A love story told in pieces)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Honest Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Beth Bruhlancey and Becky Bijackkelly for this one. Very very loosely inspired by stuff on the character blogs (if you aren't following the character blogs on tumblr you should be because they're great.)  
> I know the ship sounds a little bit out there, but trust me on this one.

Excerpt from “On the Run: The Truth Behind the Kelly Gang” by David Jacobs (1968)

You might have expected the night before the end to be a somber affair, or a desperate last gasp of pleasure. In truth, it was neither of those things. It was much like any other night that summer. The cops were too hot on our trail for us to risk a hotel. There were pictures of all of us on wanted posters all over the country. I was listed as an accomplice, even though everyone still thought of me as a hostage, for reasons that I later learned had everything to do with politics and giving them an excuse for the public in case they killed me. I don’t think even the police suspected how willingly I was involved in the robberies.

We’d parked the car off the road a ways, careful to make sure it couldn’t be seen by anyone driving by. I had my head in Morris’ lap, and we were both listening to Jack wax poetic about Santa Fe as he strummed his fingers idly along the strings of his ukulele. He loved that thing almost as much as he loved us. I tried to find out what happened to it afterwards, but the police insisted that everything in the car was evidence and confiscated it. I didn’t see it again for years, until it showed up in the Smithsonian for the exhibit they put together thirty years later. He would have laughed so hard at the idea of anything of his showing up in the Smithsonian, much less as part of a full exhibit about him.

I don’t think any of us had very many illusions at that point. We knew we were close to the end. That’s one of the reasons we’d been moving towards Santa Fe. Jack wanted to see the city he’d been dreaming of his whole life at least once before he died. Not that we discussed it that way. We were always planning for the future as if it would last forever. I think they did that more for my benefit than their own. The same way they made me stay in the shadows so that no one knew I was more than a hostage. They knew they were doomed, but they wanted me to have a chance. Not that I saw things that way at the time. I considered myself just as doomed as them. I couldn’t imagine a future without them.

Perhaps that’s what made me say it.

“Maybe we should reconsider the plan.”

Jack froze. Morris’ fingers tensed in my hair.

“What’s wrong with the plan?” Jack asked, too casual. “Tried and tested.”

“Exactly,” I said. “The police are too close behind us. They know our usual methods. They’ll be expecting us. It’s too risky.”

“We’ll be fine, Davey,” Morris promised. “Don’t worry about it.”

But I wasn’t done.

“Why don’t we take off? Find somewhere no one knows about us. Just hide out for a few months.”

“You worry too much, babe,” Jack insisted, turning his attention back to the ukulele. “Ain’t nothin’ to worry about.”

I looked up.

“Morris?”

He looked away. I stood up and looked between the two of them. Neither of them would look me in the eye.

“Jack! Morris! We don’t have to just die!”

I regretted it instantly. There were reasons we didn’t talk about it. Morris flinched, and Jack’s eyes narrowed, turning dark and hard.

“Jacobs! Shut it.”

I hadn’t been afraid of Jack Kelly in a very long time. But I’d forgotten that the fact that I loved him didn’t change the fact that he was dangerous. He kept a gun on him at all times, and I’d seen him use it. I don’t think he would have hurt me, but even now I’m not certain what he would have done if I hadn’t shut my mouth and sat back down.

“I told you the sky’s bigger in Santa Fe,” Jack continued, as if I’d never interrupted. “Look at all them stars. Like nothin’ you’ve ever seen.”

 

\--

 

Excerpts from “Queer America: A Re-Examination of History” Chapter 17: The Kelly Gang (1965)

 

“Jack Kelly met Morris Delancey in New York City in the summer of 1930. Kelly, just shy of eighteen at the time, had been in and out of jail for the past several years. He was on the run from the cops yet again, after breaking out of the New York City juvenile jail commonly nicknamed ‘The Refuge’, when he ducked into the garage where Delancey was working as a mechanic. The two hit it off immediately, and Delancey offered Kelly a place to stay for the night. After a tense fight with his brother Oscar, Morris abandoned home to join Kelly on the run. So began a partnership that would capture the imagination of the nation.

They robbed their first bank just two weeks later, in a small town two hours west of New York City. Over the next two years, they quickly scaled the FBI’s most wanted list and became the talk of the nation.” (234)

“Delancey and Kelly seemed incapable of hiding their affection for each other, with one witness even reporting Kelly pressing a kiss to Delancey’s cheek directly after shooting down a police officer. Even before the photos found when the police raided one of their hideouts in 1934 confirmed the romantic nature of their relationship, there was speculation. The photos spread like wildfire, making an openly queer couple front page news for the first time in American history. It’s no accident that the couple, previously viewed with a kind of admiration, was quickly demonized as a pair of inhuman killers. Yet the country’s obsession with the Kelly Gang couldn’t be buried. The public eagerly followed the story to the young lovers’ death, an ending worthy of any of the popular novels of the time. The various articles Jacobs sent to the newspapers during his two years with the duo, including the famous quote ‘I've never met two people more in love’, served only to feed the public imagination. For the first time, many people were faced with the idea of not only homosexual sex, but also homosexual romance.” (235)

From the revised 2001 edition:

“But Jacobs wasn’t finished breaking ground for the queer community. In 1968, he published his own account of events in which he discussed with frank honesty not only his heavy involvement with the Kelly Gang’s robberies, but also his polyamorous relationship with both Kelly and Delancey, as well as his own asexuality. The book was quickly declared immoral, and religious organizations around the country struggled to ban it, succeeding only in making it a bestseller.” (237)

 

\--

 

Excerpt from “ _Kelly Gang_ an Instant Classic” New York Times article (1992)

 

Hailed as the most accurate portrayal of the notorious criminals, the new film _The Kelly Gang_ is the first film on the subject produced after the publication of David Jacobs’ radical autobiography, and it draws heavily on Jacobs’ account for inspiration. Unlike the earlier _Jack and Morris_ , which introduced David Jacobs (Robert Shaw) only in the last thirty minutes of the nearly two hour film, _The Kelly Gang_ makes Jacobs (David Moscow) the center of the film. While Christian Bale as Jack Kelly was billed as the star, Moscow is the true standout in the cast.

                From the moment he’s introduced, staring down a gun as Kelly orders him to step out of the car, Moscow’s David Jacobs is passionate, determined, and not at all a victim. In an early scene, Jacobs refuses to allow Kelly and Delancey (David Scheinkopf) to simply drop him on the side of the road, threatening to “not move from this car until I get an interview.” Frustrated and unsure of how to deal with this situation, Kelly and Delancey withdraw to a distance away to consider what to do. The camera, however, focuses on Jacobs’ face, as he watches the two discussing. Moscow plays Jacobs as an intelligent young man used to playing by the rules who nonetheless finds himself instantly intrigued by the criminal duo. His eyes trace their movements as he watches them with something more akin to curiosity than fear. When Jack kisses Morris tenderly, his eyes widen, but he doesn’t look away.

                The two offer to just let him leave. All three of them know that he has plenty of material for an article. But Jacobs simply looks between the two of them and asks “What’s my other option?”

                From that moment on, the three are a single unit. Jacobs plans the crimes, Kelly leads them, and Delancey provides the muscle to back it all up. The heist scenes are interspersed with shots of Jacobs writing his famous articles in a series of ever-shadier hotel rooms.

In fact, the entire film becomes darker as the story progresses. The color pallet shifts from bright blues and greens to greys and blacks by the end, highlighting the growing darkness of their encroaching doom. The characters too reflect this growing darkness and the film doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the story. As Kelly, Bale straddles the line between lovable rogue and desperate criminal. Throughout the film, he is simultaneously charming and frightening in equal measures. Likewise, Delancey has moments of tenderness directly followed by moments of remorseless violence that seem almost seem incompatible. Even Jacobs is shows no signs of regret when Jack comes home with other peoples' blood on his clothes. Yet, all three of the characters remain sympathetic and, more importantly, retain their agency. While _Jack and Morris_ seemed determined to absolve the pair of blame for their crimes with the idea that they were pushed to it by a morally corrupt society, _The Kelly Gang_ insists that all three of them walked into things with their eyes wide open. They know the price of their actions, and none of them show any hint of regret.

 

\--

 

Excerpt from “Jack and Morris” Script (1955)

 

[KELLY opens the car door to see DAVID JACOBS sitting in the front seat, his left hand resting on the steering wheel, hiding the fact that he’s handcuffed himself to it. KELLY makes a hand signal to DELANCEY, then turns back to JACOBS, pointing a gun to his head.]

JACOBS

Mr. Kelly? I’d like to request an interview.

KELLY

Get out of my car.

JACOBS

I will. As soon as you give me an interview.

KELLY

Look, I’m in the middle of a robbery. The police are gonna show up at any minute. I don’t have time to spout nice quotes for some smartass reporter. Get out of my car.

JACOBS

[moves his hand to reveal the handcuffs]

Then you’d better talk fast.

KELLY

Are you insane?

JACOBS

Perhaps. But you’re not getting into this car until I get my interview.

[DELANCEY has spent the previous exchange circling around to the passenger side. He opens the door and climbs in. He grabs JACOBS and pulls him into the middle of the front seat, pressing a gun to his head in the process.]

DELANCEY

Get in and drive, Kelly.

\--

 

Excerpt from “ _The Kelly Gang_ Opens With a Bang” New York Times article (2011)

 

In 1992, a film called _The Kelly Gang_ opened to rave reviews from critics, and a lukewarm response from the general public. Like David Jacobs’ radical autobiography, which it was based on, the film has often been considered too far ahead of its time. Now, twenty years after the movie and nearly fifty after the release of Jacobs’ autobiography, perhaps the world is finally ready for the story of Jack Kelly, Morris Delancey, and David Jacobs.

The new musical, also titled _The Kelly Gang_ and loosely based on the movie, opened on Broadway last night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The show originally premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, and later played at the Aslo Repetory Theater in Florida before moving to Broadway.

Starring Jeremy Jordan, Mike Faist, and Ben Fankhauser as Jack Kelly, Morris Delancey, and David Jacobs, _The Kelly Gang_ is a theatrical masterpiece. The musical was billed as fast-paced action story, and it certainly delivers its fair share of action, but at its heart _The Kelly Gang_ is a love story. Not a conventional love story, of course, but a love story nonetheless.  Besides the romance between the main trio, David’s family plays a major role in the story, as does Morris’ brother Oscar. The main cast is rounded out with the members of the police force charged with bringing down Jack and Morris, which includes Katherine Plumber, the determined female officer vainly struggling against the violent tactics of Police Chief Pulitzer and his second-in-command, Snyder. 

The impressive score by Frank Wildhorn helps lend an emotional depth to these characters. As the show closes on David Jacobs, surrounded by police officers and reporters, time freezes for a moment to allow him to grieve. Fankhauser allows the emotion of this final reprise to bring him to his knees, before the moment is over and he stands up, a careful mask falling over his face. The show ends with Jacobs’ first words to the reporters swarming him; “I’d like to thank the police force for their tireless efforts.”

 

\--

 

Excerpt from Sarah Jacobs’ interview with People Magazine (2000)

 

Interviewer: There was always speculation that your brother’s autobiography was largely fabricated to take advantage of the scandal. What do you think of these allegations?

Ms. Jacobs: I think that anyone making such accusations has never met my brother, much less known him as long as I have. David wouldn’t lie about something like that. He was a reporter, but he didn’t sensationalize for news. He was always determined to bring the truth to light. That’s why he became a reporter.

Besides, l knew about many of the key points of that book long before it was something he could even consider writing.

About a week after he came home, Dad left the newspaper on the kitchen table. There was a picture of Jack and Morris on the front page. I think it was the one where they’re standing in front of the car, and Jack just has his arm slung around Morris’ waist. Davey walked in and he just stopped. And the way he looked at the picture. I just knew.

Of course, I made the assumption that he’d simply had an unrequited crush on one of them, which wasn't quite true. But he saw me watching him and he broke down and told me everything. If you ever heard him talk about them – really talk about them - you’d know that’s not the kind of emotion you can fake.

So no, I don’t think my brother was lying, and quite frankly I find that whole theory insulting.

Interviewer: Can you tell us about your brother’s non-sexuality?

Mrs. Jacobs: Well, first of all, the correct term is “asexuality”. Davey… well I always knew he was a little different. For a long time, I assumed that he was just being very careful. The fact that Davey was romantically attracted to boys was something of an open secret in our family. He never said anything, but we all knew.

I didn’t know about the asexuality until he was writing the book though. He handed me a draft of one of the chapters and asked if I thought anyone would believe it. I told him no one would believe it, but if it was true he should include it anyway, because they wouldn’t believe the rest of it either.

Interviewer: Did you believe it?

Mrs. Jacobs: At the time? I admit I didn’t know what to think. I’d never heard of such a thing, but I trusted my brother.

Interviewer: And now?

Mrs. Jacobs: Now, I know he was telling the truth. And I’m so glad I didn’t tell him to drop that chapter. Davey, he got so many letters after that book was published. A lot of them were hate mail. But he read every single one. After a while, I noticed that for some of them, he took down the address and kept the letter in a box separate from the others. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that they were people who were like him. He told me he was going to create a mailing list. That would later become the Asexuality Network.

Interviewer: And you think that was important to him?

Mrs. Jacobs: Oh yes. He told me that Jack and Morris were the first people to accept him as he was, and that had meant everything to him. Turning around and passing that on to others really meant a lot to him.

Interviewer: So you think that Jack Kelly and Morris Delancey changed his perspective on things?

Mrs. Jacobs: Oh definitely. They were hardened criminals, but they respected who he was and what he wanted. Unconditionally and without question. That was something I don't think he ever expected from anyone.

 

\--

 

David Jacobs’ Letter to Oscar Delancey (1935)

 

Dear Oscar,

I'm sorry. I really am. If I could have stopped them I would have. You have to know that. The papers have been painting it as some sort of awful torment I endured, but it wasn't so bad most of the time. They were good to me, even if I couldn’t leave. Your brother, well, he was a lot more than anyone ever gave him credit for. He used to help me with the articles. He couldn't read them, but I read them out loud to him and he helped me that way. He was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. A lot of people have told me that I should hate them for what they did to me, but I don't. I had plenty of time to get to know them, and I came to care about them.

Morris talked a lot about you. You were clearly a huge influence in his life, and I know it hurt him that he couldn't keep in contact with you. I once offered to write to you for him, but he always insisted he was going to get back to New York eventually and talk to you in person. I guess that didn't work out.

That last day, he asked me to send you a letter. He said to tell you that he loved you, and he was sorry he threw his life away. I'm sure there was more he wanted to say, but Jack was down by that point and we didn't really have much time to talk.

So here I am, writing to you. This may be too much to ask, but I'd like to get to know you. I understand if you want nothing further to do with me, but I wanted to reach out to you all the same.

Yours,

David Jacobs

 

\--

 

Excerpt from “On the Run:  The Truth Behind the Kelly Gang” by David Jacobs (1968)

 

It all started out normally enough, if you considered bank robbery a normal part of your daily routine.

Jack parked the car just outside the door. Morris shoved me out the passenger door before the car even stopped moving, following quickly behind me and pressing a gun to his head. The gun was unloaded, and I knew that, but that didn’t stop the shiver of fear that ran down my spine. But this had been my idea. I was tired of waiting nervously in shady hotel rooms, jumping every time I heard footsteps and wondering if it would be Jack and Morris opening the door, or the police. Besides, a hotel would be too risky. The entire city was waiting for us. And we’d shown up just where they expected, the city’s largest bank.

Morris had me handcuffed to him and a gun pressed to my head. Jack followed closely behind us, a pistol in each hand. His weapons were loaded. I was trying my best to look terrified. It was harder than I’d suspected when Morris kept brushing his hand gently against mine.

The bustling hum of the bank ground to a halt as we pushed through the doors. Jack smiled. This was his favorite part.

“Good morning, gentle folks! As you might have already guessed, my name is Jack Kelly, and this is my partner, Morris Delancey. The fellow in blue is Mr. David Jacobs, who’s been writing some lovely articles for us. I’m sure you’ve read them. Now, here’s how things are going to go: I’m going to hand this bag to the sharply dressed man behind the counter. He’s going to fill it with cash, then he’s going to give it back to me. Anyone in here tries any funny business and Morris puts a bullet in Davey’s clever little brain. After that, we start shooting at the rest of you. Everyone understand?”

The crowd nodded mutely. For a moment, it all seemed so easy that I was wondering why I’d been so worried.

Then, Jack was staggering backwards and the teller had a gun in his hand. A shot from Jack, and the teller went down with a hole in his head, but that didn’t change the fact that Jack was tumbling to the floor with a dark red stain on his chest that kept growing steadily larger.

Beside me, Morris’ eyes widened and he dropped to his knees next to Jack. I followed him down, tugged by the handcuffs and my own desperate desire to prove my eyes wrong. Jack would be fine. He had to be. He’d been shot before and made it out alive. This was no different. He’d laugh and haul himself to his feet, mad as hell, but alive, and we’d get out of here.

But Jack wasn’t laughing. He was smiling a sad smile I’d never seen before.

“I told you I was going to make Santa Fe,” he said quietly.

His eyes were fixed on Morris, but I knew he was talking to me. And I couldn’t say a word.

Jack pushed himself up and threw an arm around Morris’ neck, dragging him into a desperate last kiss. His other hand just happened to find mine and just for a moment we held our hands together in our own, far more subtle, goodbye.

Then, the doors behind us swung open.

“Run,” Jack hissed. “I’ll buy you time. Make sure Davey gets out of this.”

I started to protest, but Morris was already dragging me to my feet as the police stormed through the door. Behind me, I heard shooting, but I couldn’t tell whether it was Jack or the cops. I would later learn that it was both.

Morris made for the sturdy counter and leapt over it, dragging me with him. We paused, safe for a moment crouched behind the thick wood, designed to stand up to gunfire. The teller who had shot Jack was still lying on the ground. I didn’t look at him. I had eyes only for Morris.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” I began in a hushed whisper.

He shook his head.

“No, Davey. This time I’m the one with the plan.”

I could already see where this was going.

“Morris, no!” I begged. “I’ll think of something. We can both get out of this. Or we both go down together.”

“Promise me you’ll write to Oscar,” Morris said, as if he hadn’t heard me. “Tell him I love him. Tell him I’m sorry I screwed up my life.”

“Morris, I’m not letting you do this.”

He kissed me then, as desperately as he’d kissed Jack only moments earlier. I kissed back, hoping that somehow I would be able to change his mind.

“I’m not giving you a choice,” he said as he finally pulled away.

The tinny click of handcuffs locking into place clued me in to what he had done. But by then he was already pulling away from me, the cuffs that had formerly locked us together now locking me to one of the drawers near the bottom of the counter, effectively keeping me out of the range of any bullet fire.

“I have a hostage!” Morris shouted.

“Give it up, Delancey!” one of the cops shouted. “You’ve got nowhere to run.”

“Unless you want David Jacobs dead, you’ll put down your guns,” Morris ordered. “Let me walk out of here alive, and I’ll let you keep him. Is that fair?”

“Morris, don’t,” I whispered.

He smiled at me.

“You’ll be okay, Davey. Make sure they get the story right, okay?”

And then he stood up.

The burst of gunfire set my ears ringing. I heard Morris’ body fall, but I couldn’t bear to look at anything but the wood a few inches away from my head.

Finally, after what felt like days but must have been a minute at most, a police officer stuck his head over the counter.

“Mr. Jacobs? It’s over.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun(?) facts that didn't make the final cut or that you may have missed while reading this:  
> \- Marlon Brando starred as Jack Kelly in "Morris and Jack". James Dean was Morris Delancey. That movie was not remotely historically accurate, but surprisingly popular. It was intended as a critique of society, with a moral that amounted to "the ills of society force our young people into a terrible life of crime and homosexuality" but then the director cast two incredibly attractive bisexuals as the leads and somewhere along the way the moral mostly got lost.  
> \- Davey could publish a book openly admitting that he'd been the brains behind the Kelly Gang because of this fancy thing called "double jeopardy" which says you can't be put on trial twice for the same crime. He was technically considered a suspected accomplice to the gang, so they had to put him on trial after he was "rescued", but no one really thought he'd done it. He actually never lied at his trial. It was such a foregone conclusion and everyone was worried that he had been traumatized by the ordeal, so he was only asked a couple of questions.  
> \- On that subject, a lot of people really hated Davey after the book. Multiple people tried to kill him.  
> \- Morris was dyslexic.  
> \- I tried to make this was clear, but just in case anyone missed it, up until that last robbery Davey was usually left behind in the hotel/car while Jack and Morris actually pulled off the robberies.  
> \- Oscar and Davey did eventually become friends.  
> \- Morris and Jack were buried separately and in New York, against their wishes. There are rumors that they haunt the bank where they died and will continue to do so until someone fixes this.  
> \- Sarah was married but kept her last name.


End file.
